Camino de Santiago
For over 1,000 years, the Camino de Santiago, or Way of St James, has followed ancient Roman trading routes and is a network of pilgrimage routes leading to the Shrine of the Apostle Saint James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. Christian pilgrims started walking the Way of St. James in the 9th century. It became more popular in 1492 after being declared one of the three great pilgrimages of Christendom, along with Jerusalem and the Via Francigena to Rome.
The Via Francigena route runs from the cathedral in Canterbury, England to Rome.
The Camino Frances is the most popular with 60% of pilgrims walking this route. We plan on starting the Camino Frances in St. Jean de Pied de Port in France hiking across the Pyrenees to Pamplona, Spain. We will cross into Spain through the Roncesvalles Pass where Charlemagne was ambushed in 778. In July, 1813 Napoleonic troops fought British and Portuguese troops in the same pass. St. Jean de Pied de Port to Pamplona is typically divided into three stages. We will miss The Running of the Bulls which occurs in Pamplona annually from July 7th-14th.
Stage 1 of the Camino Frances. St. Jean-Pied-de-Port to Roncesvalles
- Distance – 15.5 miles
- Time – 5h 30min.
- Ascent – 1400 m
- Descent – 650 m
Stage 2 of the Camino Frances. Roncesvalles to Zubiri
- Distance – 13.6 miles
- Time – 4h 20min.
- Ascent – 443 m
- Descent – 871 m
Stage 3 of the Camino Frances. Zubiri to Pamplona
- Distance – 13.6 miles
- Time – 4h
- Ascent – 405 m
- Descent – 491 m
Ernest Hemingway made Pamplona famous in his first novel The Sun Also Rises where he details the running of the bulls and fishing. Since 1910 sixteen people have died during the running of the bulls. 100% of the bulls have died.
Leaving Pamplona, we will spend three days on the Camino Baztan returning to France. When we get to Irun and the French coast, we pick up the Camino del Norte along the northern coast of Spain on the Bay of Biscay.
Camino del Norte is less traveled with only 5.5% of pilgrims walking it. There are 30 to 34 stages (depending how far you want to walk each day) covering roughly 500 miles. The first stage is 17 miles and ends in San Sabastian, Spain. San Sabastian is in the Basque region of Spain and has more Michelin starred restaurants per capita than anywhere in the world (Michelin list). We plan on spending a couple of days in San Sabastian rounding out our first week.
If we do the Camino Frances to Pamplona picking up the Camino Baztan to Irun and then the Camino del Norte, we will cover almost exactly 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).